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Reproducing Success! Guru suggestions needed

by MMOYW
15 replies
I built around 10 web sites built on products from Amazon. Around 2 worked. Sadly I don't know why, and would love some help figuring it out.

There are some many great gurus on this site, and a little insight would probably go a long way.

Here are the problems:

1. Outside of keyword research, the site is the complete opposite from what Google wants. It has only 4 to 7 pages, no real content to speak of, and mostly picture links to amazon products, and a few affiliate websites. To add injury to insult, I haven't touched the site in a few years.

I used a lot of back-linking services years ago, and when Google figured it out, I lost about 90% of my income. The catch is the 10% is really good for doing nothing, and the site makes more and more slowly over time (and mostly *NOT* from Google).

Why do they work? I am confused? I would love to reproduce them, I just don't have a clue if it would work again, or what I did right in the first place.
#guru #needed #reproducing #success #suggestions
  • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
    Forget to mention: each site makes about $30/day.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    Not every site you create will be successful. Granted, some people do create a streak of successful sites, it doesn't happen all the time.
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    I would not even worry about this. Too many people focus on this strategy and a year later are still confused why they are failing.

    If your goal is to make sales with affiliate marketing, know this:

    It takes money to make money. It is OK and a MUST if you want to have faster success online.
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    • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
      Originally Posted by talfighel View Post

      I would not even worry about this. Too many people focus on this strategy and a year later are still confused why they are failing.

      If your goal is to make sales with affiliate marketing, know this:

      It takes money to make money. It is OK and a MUST if you want to have faster success online.
      What do you mean?
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    If it were me, I would take that $30 per day and spend it on PPC instead of worrying about SEO.

    Focus on making a site that CONVERTS instead of making a site that RANKS. Don't worry about what Google wants... worry about what your paying customers want. The site should be for them.
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    Ron Rule
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    • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
      Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

      If it were me, I would take that $30 per day and spend it on PPC instead of worrying about SEO.

      Focus on making a site that CONVERTS instead of making a site that RANKS. Don't worry about what Google wants... worry about what your paying customers want. The site should be for them.
      I don't think you could do PPC on a site full of Amazon products. It won't convert.
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      • Profile picture of the author ronrule
        Originally Posted by MMOYW View Post

        I don't think you could do PPC on a site full of Amazon products. It won't convert.
        Why would you think that?

        I guess it depends on how the site is structured. If it's simply a hotlink to the product on Amazon, you're probably right. If it's the Amazon affiliate plugin for WooCommerce or something similar (where it's a traditional cart experience, with product data fed from Amazon, then transports the session to Amazon for checkout) it could do fine.

        The key is not to focus on getting the sale... get the CUSTOMER. You can promote another product to them later.
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        • Profile picture of the author Icematikx
          Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

          Why would you think that?

          I guess it depends on how the site is structured. If it's simply a hotlink to the product on Amazon, you're probably right. If it's the Amazon affiliate plugin for WooCommerce or something similar (where it's a traditional cart experience, with product data fed from Amazon, then transports the session to Amazon for checkout) it could do fine.

          The key is not to focus on getting the sale... get the CUSTOMER. You can promote another product to them later.
          Why would you use PPC on Amazon Affiliates?

          Let's say you average 7.5% commission.

          You promote $400 products. That's $30 per sale.

          You would need HYPER targeted traffic, so your keywords are say, "Bosch X87 Review" (example KW).

          This most likely will bring a $0.50 cpc minimum in adwords.

          That means that you need to sell one product in 60 visitors to hit even. That's roughly 2% conversion.

          For $400 products, I'd estimate a 2%-4% conversion rate on Amazon based on my own data.

          At best, you'd probably be earning around $5-$10 per 60 visitors. If you have a bad day, you're losing money pretty easily.

          It's too risky with no guaranteed returns.
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          • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
            Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

            Why would you use PPC on Amazon Affiliates?

            Let's say you average 7.5% commission.

            You promote $400 products. That's $30 per sale.

            You would need HYPER targeted traffic, so your keywords are say, "Bosch X87 Review" (example KW).

            This most likely will bring a $0.50 cpc minimum in adwords.

            That means that you need to sell one product in 60 visitors to hit even. That's roughly 2% conversion.

            For $400 products, I'd estimate a 2%-4% conversion rate on Amazon based on my own data.

            At best, you'd probably be earning around $5-$10 per 60 visitors. If you have a bad day, you're losing money pretty easily.

            It's too risky with no guaranteed returns.
            Exactly. I think a sales page with a clickbank product is more PPC compatible.
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          • Profile picture of the author ronrule
            Originally Posted by Icematikx View Post

            Why would you use PPC on Amazon Affiliates?

            Let's say you average 7.5% commission.

            You promote $400 products. That's $30 per sale.

            You would need HYPER targeted traffic, so your keywords are say, "Bosch X87 Review" (example KW).

            This most likely will bring a $0.50 cpc minimum in adwords.

            That means that you need to sell one product in 60 visitors to hit even. That's roughly 2% conversion.

            For $400 products, I'd estimate a 2%-4% conversion rate on Amazon based on my own data.

            At best, you'd probably be earning around $5-$10 per 60 visitors. If you have a bad day, you're losing money pretty easily.

            It's too risky with no guaranteed returns.
            In that scenario, you're right - I think we're talking about two different things though.

            There are two ways to utilize Amazon's affiliate program. One is the way you're describing... you're driving a person to a page and hoping they buy something from Amazon where all you get is the commission.

            The second method is using a shopping cart that pulls data from Amazon, builds out a local site, and has a traditional add to cart/checkout process. The checkout happens on Amazon, but you're getting the customer name and email out of the deal right before they're transitioned to Amazon.

            You make the same affiliate commission, but you control the visitor experience and can optimize for conversions, where if you're just linking to the product on Amazon it's going to convert at whatever Amazon's page would have converted at. This way you're building an audience - now you can market to that same customer again at no cost. Loss leader mindset. I do this all the time, and more often than not I lose money on the first sale. But the second and all subsequent sales from those same customers cost me zero. Since I have a 60% repeat buyer rate, I come out ahead. More risk if conversion optimization isn't your strong suit, and certainly more work, but more reward when successful and no bothering with SEO. You can control your budget on a per-product basis, and if there's no way to make the numbers work you pull the ads and focus on what converts.

            This is how the top Amazon affiliates are doing it. They aren't linking to products, they're building niche eCommerce sites using the product API. The added advantage of going this route is that you get the 90 day cookie - even if the user doesn't complete their checkout. That earns you affiliate commissions on everything that person spends on Amazon for the next 90 days, instead of 24 hours like the normal affiliate cookie when you link directly to a product.
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    • Profile picture of the author internetmarketer1
      Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

      If it were me, I would take that $30 per day and spend it on PPC instead of worrying about SEO.

      Focus on making a site that CONVERTS instead of making a site that RANKS. Don't worry about what Google wants... worry about what your paying customers want. The site should be for them.
      Agreed with the CONVERT thing. It is true. I have TONS of old blogger sites that get 1 or 3 visits every other day or so, and they still EACH make me a consistent $30-$50 every week.

      They may not get tons of traffic, but they get TONS of sales and they CONVERT REALLY WELL. And this is what matters the most.
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  • Profile picture of the author seekdefo
    Once I had built a site on Rorschach masks, no content, image links to Amazon products and 5 such posts in total. No SEO done either. It ranked 3rd for the 9000 per month search term Rorschach masks and made $4 on some months.

    Maybe your competition is little. Maybe Google misses some of the bad SEO done on some sites. Google isn't perfect and I see a hell lot of examples of its imperfection everyday.

    You don't reveal the site in question and for good reasons. We are all shooting blind here.
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    • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
      Originally Posted by seekdefo View Post

      Once I had built a site on Rorschach masks, no content, image links to Amazon products and 5 such posts in total. No SEO done either. It ranked 3rd for the 9000 per month search term Rorschach masks and made $4 on some months.

      Maybe your competition is little. Maybe Google misses some of the bad SEO done on some sites. Google isn't perfect and I see a hell lot of examples of its imperfection everyday.

      You don't reveal the site in question and for good reasons. We are all shooting blind here.
      I am sort of wondering if the back-links still work on sites like Bing.
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  • Profile picture of the author MMOYW
    Also, I don't think you are allowed to do PPC with Adsense on your site. I don't care about AdWords, but AdSense I need.
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  • Profile picture of the author LucidWebMarketing
    Ronrule has got it right: focus on creating sites that convert. You should build them for actual, living, breathing visitors, not Google or any other search engine.

    >> I don't think you could do PPC on a site full of Amazon products. It won't convert.

    I'm also wondering why you say that. If you build it with your prospects in mind, they will convert, no matter the source. Why would a visitor from PPC be any different than one from organic sources? In my experience, proper PPC will generally convert better. So if you say PPC doesn't convert, you may be doing it wrong. Conversions from natural sources are probably not all that great either, percentage-wise.

    As for PPC with affiliate products, as pointed out, the problem is that because you are not selling the product directly yourself, the low commissions eat at potential profits.

    As for having Adsense or any other ads on your site, I think that's silly when you are trying to sell something, whether your own product or as an affiliate.
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